In the coming years, Dr. Bacchetta plans to further determine the genetic and immunological basis of diseases with autoimmunity or immune dysregulation in children. She believes that much can still be learned from the in depth mechanistic studies of pediatric autoimmune diseases. Genomic analysis of the patients' samples has become possible which may provide a rapid indication of altered target molecules. Dr. Bacchetta plans to implement robust functional studies to define the consequences of these genetic abnormalities and bridge them to the patient's clinical phenotype.

Understanding functional consequences of gene mutations in single case/family first and then validating the molecular and cellular defects in other patients with similar phenotypes, will anticipate and complement cellular and gene therapy strategies.